Authorities investigating whether plane crashed due to electrical failure or ran out of fuel

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The crash occurred amid poor weather conditions as the plane was on its way to the city's international airport, and the country's civil aviation authority said ambulances and emergency workers had arrived at the scene.

Local authorities said there appeared to be survivors, and confirmed the plane was a chartered flight carrying the team of Chapecoense Real for the final of a regional tournament.

Medellin Plane Crash

Medellin Plane Crash

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Logo of Brazilian football team Chapecoense at the site of the plane crash in a mountainous area outside the Colombian city of Medellin.
Plane carrying Brazilian football team Chapecoense crashes in Colombia

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Rescue workers carry the body of a survivor of a plane that crashed in La Union, a mountainous area outside Medellin, Colombia

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Rescue workers carry the body of a man from a plane that crashed outside Medellin, Colombia.
The plane was carrying the Brazilian first division soccer club Chapecoense team that was on it's way for a Copa Sudamericana final match against Colombia's Atletico Nacional

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Medical staff waiting for survivors of the crashed plane carrying the Brazilian football team Chapecoense, at San Juan de Dios La Ceja Hospital, in La Ceja municipality, near Medellin

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Medical staff from the San Juan de Dios hospital transfer 27-year-old Brazilian soccer player Alan Ruschel as he arrives to La Ceja in Colombia

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81 people, including the players of the Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense, crashed in a mountainous area outside Medellin as it was approaching the Jose Maria Cordoba airport

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Medical staff from the San Juan de Dios hospital transfer Brazilian journalist Rafael Henze as he arrives at La Ceja in Colombia after surviving a plane crash

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razil's Chapecoense player Helio Neto is helped by paramedics at the San Juan de Dios clinic in La Ceja.
Traveling on the doomed airliner that crashed in Colombia overnight were the players and staff of a Brazilian football club about to complete a fairytale journey from unknowns to would-be South American champions

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Rescue workers search at the wreckage site of a chartered airplane that crashed outside Medellin, Colombia

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A charter plane carrying the Chapocoense Real football team crashed in the mountains in Colombia late Monday, killing as many as 75 people, officials said

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Rescuers gesture near the wreckage of the LAMIA airlines charter plane carrying members of the Chapecoense Real football team that crashed in the mountains of Cerro Gordo, municipality of La Union

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Supporters of the Chapcoense FC gathering at the club in Chapeco, Brazil

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Supporters of the Chapcoense FC gathering at the club in Chapeco, Brazil

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People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco

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Fans pay tribute to members of the Chapecoense team in front of the club headquarters, in the city of Chapeco

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People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco

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People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina

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The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline named LaMia, declared an emergency at 10pm Monday (0300 GMT) because of an electrical failure.

"It's a tragedy of huge proportions," Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his way to the site in a mountainous area outside the city where aircraft crashed.

The aircraft, which made a stop in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the first division Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil. The team was scheduled to play Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin.

"May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation," the club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page.

South America's soccer federation extended its condolences to the entire Chapecoense community and said its president, Luis Dominguez, was on his way to Medellin. All soccer activities were suspended until further notice, the organisation said in a statement.